vlinchong

I can't believe people are raving about this film. It deals with abortion, incest, racism, cheating with your best friend's girl, abuse of doctor's priviledges - a whole goulash of 1990s hot issues - and then backs off with a dopey grin, the message being a wimpy 'everybody makes mistakes'. I guess people liked it because there are no consequences to any of the actions. I found it a pretentious politically correct postcard filled with trite, sentimental characters.

This is a great film to show a little kid. Closely based on the book (even using those great illustrations), and with beautiful music by Lerner and Loewe, it is magical and poignant. Steven Warner is wonderful as the Prince who came down from the littlest asteroid in the sky. Bob Fosse's snake dance is still being imitated by my little kid. The music certainly lives up to the book and more than that, illuminates the character of the narrator to an infinite degree. I am still humming the songs a week after I've seen it.

This film has a bit of fame as one of the first films using the process of two tone color. I saw it at MOMA when they were showing a retrospective of the history of color in moving pictures. It was shown without any music and for a silent film this is usually death, but the film was utterly engrossing and terribly moving. I still think of it ten years after I've seen it and would LOVE to get my hands on a copy. Anna May Wong is poignant and fragile in the lead role in this adaptation of the Madame Butterfly story.